Carolyn S. GoodridgeNational Caribbean American Heritage Month, 2017

NCAHM 2017 - Carolyn Goodridge

Born in Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago, West Indies Carolyn Sharon Goodridge immigrated to the United States at age two. She developed skills in music and art, and interests in spiritual philosophies before age 12. After graduating high school Goodridge became a resident at the Chogye International Zen Center of the Kwan Um School of Zen, a Korean Zen Temple in New York City.

In 1990 she left New York to study art full time, receiving a Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting in 1993 from the University of Florida, Gainesville and a Master of Fine Arts from University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill in 1997.

Founder and Executive Director of Art Impact USA, headquartered in Washington, D.C., Goodridge is an artist, curator, instructor and artist representative serving over 1500 artists in fourteen countries, helping them expand their careers as well as collaborating with non-profits, corporations and leaders in their fields who hold dear the creative potential of their nations.

Goodridge is a member of College Art Association, American Alliance of Museums, National Association of Professional Women, and Ambassador of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture.

“Who inspires me? Mark Tobey, Rothko and Still, Hofmann, Kandinsky, Kleé, John Cage, Ravi Shankar, Rumi, Patanjali, Tesla, Martin Luther King and Ghandi. What inspires my cosmology series is an idea posed by theoretical physicist, Dr. Michio Kaku. He says, The mind of God is music resonating throughout the eleven dimensions of hyperspace!

“Zen of Zero Point, Om, Cosmology of Now and Dimensions of Being series bridge Eastern with Western philosophies, from Yoga to Theoretical Physics. With a Calypso and Zen background I find joy and reverence in visceral energy, music and color. Imagine the yet unknown forces of nature in the act of forming life, being. I want to capture the wonder of our universe, its radiance and intelligence in my painting, and do it with drama and emotion.

“Using the natural and ancient medium of pigmented beeswax (encaustic) I create imagery depicting memories of dreams in the cosmos, transcending the boundaries of time, space, matter and mind hoping to somehow remind mankind that we are made from the stuff of stars.”